Sea-oiling cartridge



(No Model.)

A. H. WALKER.

SEA OILING I CARTRIDGE.

No. 380,369. Patented Apr. 3, 1888.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT H. WALKER, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

SEA-OILING CARTRIDGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 380,369, dated April 3, 1888.

Application filed December 21, 1887. Serial No. 258,594. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, ALBERT H. WALKER, of Hartford, Connecticut, have invented a new and useful SeaOiling Cartridge, of which the following description and claims constitute the specification, and which is illustrated by the accompanying sheet of drawings.

This cartridge contains a projectile which contains oil, and which projectile is open at its forward end, except when that end is covered by the forward wall of the outer shell of the cartridge. The function of the cartridge is to throw the projectile out of its interior, through its forward wall, and thus to uncover the forward end of the projectile, and then to throw the projectile into the sea, and the function of the projectile is to float with its open end upward alittle below the surface of water, and to discharge its oil upward through the water to the surface of the waves, and thus to allay the combers which would otherwise form upon their crests.

Figure 1 of the drawings is an exterior fullsized view ofa cartridge suitable for a fortycaliber gun. Figs. 2 and 3 are views of the respective ends of the cartridge of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a centrallongitudinal section of the same. Fig. 5 is an exterior view of the projectile immersed in the sea, and discharging its oil upward through the water to the surface thereof.

The letter A indicates the body of the exterior shell of the cartridge. Its base is constructed in a well-known form, and is provided in a well-known manner with fulminate to be ignited by a firing-pin and to communicate fire to the powder in the powder-chamber B.

The letter 0 indicates the inner shell of the cartridge, which shell is the body of the projectile which carries the oil to the sea. Its exterior diameter is identical with the interior diameter of the outer shell, and its base is loaded with the cylindrical bloc-k D, and its mouth is provided with spool E. The exterior diameter of the annular ends of the spool is identical with the interior diameter of the inner shell, and the spool is preferably fastened within the mouth of the inner shell by crimping the edges of that mouth down upon the outer border of the outer annular end of the spool. The insertion of the spool in the which is kept in position by crimping the edges of that mouth down upon the borderof the outside of the disk. The oil-chamber I needs no outlet except the opening G, and that opening is closed by the disk H after the projectile is made and filled and when the cartridge is completed, and it continues to be thus closed until the inner shell isejected from the outer shell by the explosion of the powder in the powder-chamber B.

The mode of operation is as follows: The cartridge is placed in any breech-loading, cartridge-firing rifle gun of suitable caliber, located on shipboard or on shore, and the gun is directed over the waves to be allayed, and is discharged in the manner proper with that sort of gun. The explosion of the powder in the powder-chamber B drives the projectile through the forward wall of the outer shell, A, against the slight resistance thereof, and also drives the projectile out from the mouth of the barrel of the gun to a distance over the water proportionate to the charge of powder, the length and elevation of the gun-barrel, and the weight of the projectile and its contents. During the flight through the air the open end of the projectile is kept forward by the rotation of the projectile upon its own axis, and the oil is held in the oil-chamber by the pressure of the air upon the outer surface of the oil in the opening G. When the projectile reaches the end of its range, it sinks, base downward, a little below the surface of the water. Thereupon the oil rises outof the projectile to that surface and spreads into a film upon the waves, as graphically shown in Fig. 5 of the drawings. A projectile of the size shown in the drawings will hold about half an ounce of oil, and half an ounce of oil applied to a raging sea will allay the combers of the waves over half an acre of water, as was proved by the experiment made by Captain Smith, of the British bark Wallace, on the Atlantic Ocean, September 21,1886. From these data it follows that an ocean steamer going forward fifteen miles an hour, and provided with a suitable breech-loading rifle mounted upon a tripod, and provided with a supply of the foregoing-described cartridges, can make in a raging sea a path of unbroken water for itself an eighth of a mile wide and extending always a mile ahead by simply shooting forty of these projectiles a minute from th at rifle to a receding transverse line one-eighth of a mile long and a mile in advance of the ship. To throw the projectile that distance, the cartridge should be charged with seventy or more grains of powder and the barrel of the gun should be elevated about twenty-seven degrees. It follows, also, from the foregoing data that when lying to or when lowering or hoisting boats in a heavy sea the combers can be kept a hundred yards away from a ship by shooting twenty of these projectiles into the water around the ship and fifty yards away from the sides of the same by repeating the operation from time to time if required. v

The air chamber F and the block D, or either of them, may sometimes be omitted; but when they are used they should be so proportioned to each other and to the total weight and size of the projectile and its contents as to cause it to float with its mouth upward a little below the surface of water.

The oil in the projectile may be fish-oil, linseed-oil, olive-oil, or crude petroleum, and still other oils will produce beneficial results; but fish-oil is probably best, except when the projectiles are to be used in cold weather,when fish-oil mixed with mineral oil to give it fluidity is excellent.

I am acquainted with Letters Patent of the United States No. 303,507, of August12,1884, to John Gordon, Jr., on a shell for carrying and discharging oil, which invention consists of a closed projectile containing oil and a time-fuse and bursting charge connected therewith, so as to open the projectile by explosion at any predetermined time after it has been thrown from a gun.

I disclaim that invention because it is old, and I disclaim all inventions on sea-oiling cartridges to loe opened by explosion after they leave the projector from which they are thrown.

I do not herein claim a sea-oiling projectile consisting of a shell one end or side of the interior of which is provided with an air-chamber or its equivalent and the opposite end or side of the interior of which is provided with a weight or its equivalent, and the intermediate part of the interior of which contains oil, though such a projectile is described in this specification and shown in the accompanying drawings, because that invention is described and claimed in my application No. 260, 024, filed January 7, 1888, for Letters Patent of the United States of America.

I claim as my invention- 1. A sea-oiling cartridge consisting of the shell A, containing powder in the rearward part of its interior, and the shell O, containing oil and provided with the forward opening, G, and entirely inclosed within the forward part of the interior of the shell A, all substantially as described.

2. A sea-oiling cartridge consisting of the shell A, containing powder in the rearward part of its interior, and the shell 0, containing oil and provided with the opening G, and entirely inclosed in the forward part of the interior of the shell A, and provided with the block D, to sink it in the sea, all substantially as described.

3. A sea-oiling cartridge consisting of the shell A, containing powder in the rearward part of its interior, and the shell 0, containing oil and provided with the opening G, and entirely inclosed in the forward part of the interior of the shell A, and provided with the airchamber F, to sustain it in the sea, all sub-, stantially as described.

Hartford, Connecticut, December 20, 1887.

ALBERT H. \VALKER.

\Vitnesses:

HENRY L. REOKARD, HARRY R. XVILLIAMs. 

